Office of Compensation Analysis and Support 

Program Evaluation Report

Document Number: OCAS-PER-014 

Effective Date: 11/28/2007 

Revision No. 0 

Construction Trades Workers Page 1 of 7 

Author: Signature on file Date: 11/27/2007 Dave Allen, HP Team Leader 

Approval: Signature on file Date: 11/27/2007_ J.W. Neton, Associate Director for Science 

Supersedes: None 

RECORD OF ISSUE/REVISIONS 

ISSUE 

AUTHORIZATION 

DATE 

11/28/2007

EFFECTIVE 

DATE 

11/28/2007 

REV. NO. 

0 

DESCRIPTION 

New document to determine which 

previously completed claims require 

evaluation for the effect of ORAUTOTIB-0052 on the completed dose 

reconstruction. 

1.0 Description

In 2004, it was noted that some Construction Trades Workers (CTW) at various sites 

were unmonitored during the early years of the complex. It was believed that these 

workers may have been exposed to external radiation and/or internal contamination 

above ambient and environmental levels without adequate monitoring. To address this 

issue, ORAUT-OTIB-0052 (Technical Information Bulletin: Parameters to Consider 

When Processing Claims for Construction Trade Workers) was issued on 8/31/2006 to 

provide guidance on assessing exposure to CTWs with inadequate monitoring (either 

internal or external). 

2.0 Issue Evaluation

OTIB-0052 provides a means of estimating the dose to unmonitored Construction Trades 

Workers at DOE sites that may have been exposed to radiation at levels greater than 

environmental levels. This document multiplies by 1.4 the external dose determined 

from a co-worker study. At Hanford, the internal dose is also adjusted by using a 2.0 

multiplier on the monitored worker’s internal intakes. 

 

A number of DOE sites did not yet have an external co-worker study published when 

OTIB-0052 was issued. Since dose reconstructions for claims at these sites completed 

prior to the issuance of OTIB-0052 could not have used external co-worker values, there 

is no change to these claims as a result of the issuance of OTIB-0052. The sites that had 

external co-worker studies issued prior to 8/31/2006, and must be evaluated under this 

PER, are listed in the table below. 
Office of Compensation Analysis and Support

Document Number: OCAS-PER-014 Program Evaluation Plan 

Effective Date: 11/28/2007 Revision No. 0 Page 2 of 7 

DOE Sites with an External Co-worker model issued prior to 8/31/2006 

First published co-worker 

Date Document 

Hanford 3/23/2005 ORAUT-OTIB-0030 

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 3/23/2005 ORAUT-OTIB-0030 

Kansas City Plant 5/31/2005 ORAUT-TKBS-0031 

Los Alamos National Laboratory 5/10/2005 ORAUT-TKBS-0010-6 

Pantex Plant 7/27/2006 ORAUT-TKBS-0013-6 

Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant 7/29/2005 ORAUT-OTIB-0040 

Savannah River Site 5/31/2005 ORAUT-OTIB-0032 

Weldon Spring Plant 6/24/2005 ORAUT-TKBS-0028-6 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (X-10) 12/29/2004 ORAUT-OTIB-0021 

Y-12 Plant 9/9/2004 ORAUT-OTIB-0013 

Note: Hanford internal co-worker study (ORAUT-OTIB-0039) first issued after external 

co-worker study. 

Although four additional sites had external co-worker studies published prior to OTIB52, they are not included in the table above for the reasons stated below. 

Paducah 

OCAS-PER-013 requested the return of all Paducah claims completed prior to 11/7/2006. 

A new dose reconstruction will be completed for these claims using all current 

methodology. 

Rocky Flats 

OCAS-PER-021 requested the return of all claims completed prior to 8/17/2007. A new 

dose reconstruction will be completed for these claims using all current methodology. 

Mallinckrodt 

OCAS-PER-015 requested the return of all claims completed prior to 7/31/2007. A new 

dose reconstruction will be completed for these claims using all current methodology. 

K-25 

OCAS-PER-011 included OTIB-0052 considerations in that PER. 

3.0 Plan for Resolution or Corrective Action

A search of the claims from the sites in the table above was conducted to determine 

which claims may be those of Construction Trades Workers. The NOCTS Job Title, as 

well as the original dose reconstruction report, was searched for any of the key words 

listed in appendix A. Those that were selected only because the word appeared in an 

inappropriate field were removed. For example, if the claim was selected only because 

the word “plumber” appeared in the address (Plumber Street), the claim was removed 
Office of Compensation Analysis and Support

Document Number: OCAS-PER-014 Program Evaluation Plan 

Effective Date: 11/28/2007 Revision No. 0 Page 3 of 7 

 

from the list of selected claims. Only those claims with a probability of causation (PC) 

less than 50%, that are currently at the Department of Labor and whose dose 

reconstruction was approved prior to 8/31/2007 were included. 

These search criteria resulted in 977 potentially affected claims being selected. 

The effect of OTIB-0052 on changing a compensation decision for previously completed 

dose reconstructions can be evaluated by examining the Probability of Causation (PC) on 

a case by case basis. The use of PC as a screening criterion is based on the fact that the 

dose estimate is mathematically proportional to the Excess Relative Risk (ERR). As 

shown below, the probability of causation is determined directly from the ERR as: 

PC = [ERR/(1+ERR)]*100% 

From this equation, it can be seen that an ERR of 1.0 would result in a PC of 50% and an 

ERR of 0.818 would result in a PC of 45%1. It can also be seen that, for a given case, the 

effect on PC of a known increase or decrease in dose can be mathematically determined 

using only the original PC and this equation. 

For ORAUT-OTIB-0052, the effect is to increase the external dose 1.4 (also and increase 

of 2.0 for internal dose at Hanford). Although the exact effect can only be determined on 

a case by case basis, it is clear that the maximum amount that the dose would increase for 

any of these cases is a factor of 1.4 (2.0 for Hanford). 

Using the PC equation above, it can be calculated that, ORAUT-OTIB-0052 can not raise 

the PC to 45% if the original PC was at or below 36.8% (29.0% at Hanford). Because of 

this, a PC at or below this value is used as a screening criterion to determine which cases 

can not increase to greater than 45% PC when OTIB-0052 is applied. This criterion can 

not be applied to cases that are affected by other technical program changes. It should 

also be noted that this is a conservative analysis in that it assumes the factor of 1.4 applies 

to all doses, including internal dose. In a revised dose reconstruction, this increase 

obviously would not be applied to these other doses. Therefore, this screening criterion 

will conservatively identify a population of claims larger than the population that will 

actually have an increase in PC to greater than 45%. 

1

 A PC of 45% was selected because any claim that could exceed this value would be required to have 30 

IREP runs with 10,000 iterations per run. 
Office of Compensation Analysis and Support

Document Number: OCAS-PER-014 Program Evaluation Plan 

Effective Date: 11/28/2007 Revision No. 0 Page 4 of 7 

The 977 potentially affected claims will be reviewed to determine if they are affected by 

OTIB-0052. The following criteria will be used: 

1. External Co-Worker dose assigned. If no external co-worker dose was 

assigned (also internal at Hanford), there is no OTIB-0052 adjustment to be 

made and the claim is not affected by OTIB-0052. 

2. Verify the claim is a Construction Trades Worker. Since the key word search 

could not verify the context of the word, it is possible that some claims were 

included that should not have been. If the claim is not that of a Construction 

Trades Worker, the claim is not affected by OTIB-0052. 

3. Determine if the probability of causation is less than the PC trigger value 

(36.8% or 29.0% for Hanford claims). If the PC is less than this value, the PC 

can not increase to 45% because of this change alone and a new dose 

reconstruction is not necessary. 

4. If the claim is below the PC trigger value and a construction trades worker 

that was assigned co-worker dose, verify no other PERs affect the claim. If 

there is no increase in dose based on other PERs, the claim does not need a 

new dose reconstruction. 

NIOSH will provide DOL with the list of 977 claims, as well as a determination on each 

claim as to whether a new dose estimate is required. Documentation, that includes a 

dispositive statement which explains the basis as to why each claim was or was not 

determined to require a new dose reconstruction, will be provided to DOL and included 

in each case file. 
Office of Compensation Analysis and Support

Document Number: OCAS-PER-014 Program Evaluation Plan 

Effective Date: 11/28/2007 Revision No. 0 Page 5 of 7 

Attachment A 

Search criteria for NOCTS database and DR Reports search 

 

 CTWTitles[0,0] = " carp"; 

 CTWTitles[0,1] = "Carpenter"; 

 

 CTWTitles[1,0] = " heavy eq"; 

 CTWTitles[1,1] = "Heavy Equipment Operator"; 

 

 CTWTitles[2,0] = " plumb"; 

 CTWTitles[2,1] = "Plumber"; 

 

 CTWTitles[3,0] = " pipef"; 

 CTWTitles[3,1] = "Pipe Fitter"; 

 

 CTWTitles[4,0] = " millw"; 

 CTWTitles[4,1] = "Millwright"; 

 

 CTWTitles[5,0] = " ship"; 

 CTWTitles[5,1] = "Shipping"; 

 

 CTWTitles[6,0] = " skill"; 

 CTWTitles[6,1] = "Skilled Labor"; 

 

 CTWTitles[7,0] = " laborer"; 

 CTWTitles[7,1] = "Laborer"; 

 

 CTWTitles[8,0] = " black"; 

 CTWTitles[8,1] = "Blacksmith"; 

 

 CTWTitles[9,0] = " linem"; 

 CTWTitles[9,1] = "Lineman"; 

 

 CTWTitles[10,0] = " boil"; 

 CTWTitles[10,1] = "Boiler"; 

 

 CTWTitles[11,0] = " brick"; 

 CTWTitles[11,1] = "Brick Layer"; 

 

 CTWTitles[12,0] = " tile"; 

 CTWTitles[12,1] = "Tile"; 

 

 CTWTitles[13,0] = " metal w"; 
Office of Compensation Analysis and Support

Document Number: OCAS-PER-014 Program Evaluation Plan 

Effective Date: 11/28/2007 Revision No. 0 Page 6 of 7 

 CTWTitles[13,1] = "Metal Worker"; 

 

 CTWTitles[14,0] = " crane"; 

 CTWTitles[14,1] = "Crane Operator"; 

 

 CTWTitles[15,0] = " paint"; 

 CTWTitles[15,1] = "Painter"; 

 

 CTWTitles[16,0] = " mason"; 

 CTWTitles[16,1] = "Plaster or Cement Mason"; 

 

 CTWTitles[17,0] = " sheetm"; 

 CTWTitles[17,1] = "Sheetmetal Worker"; 

 

 CTWTitles[18,0] = " maint"; 

 CTWTitles[18,1] = "Maintenence"; 

 

 

 CTWTitles[19,0] = " truck"; 

 CTWTitles[19,1] = "Truck Driver"; 

 

 CTWTitles[20,0] = " weld"; 

 CTWTitles[20,1] = "Welder"; 

 

 CTWTitles[21,0] = " rigger"; 

 CTWTitles[21,1] = "Rigger"; 

 

 CTWTitles[22,0] = " plast"; 

 CTWTitles[22,1] = "Plasterer"; 

 

 CTWTitles[23,0] = " cement"; 

 CTWTitles[23,1] = "Cement Mason"; 

 

 CTWTitles[24,0] = " electrician"; 

 CTWTitles[24,1] = "Electrician"; 

 

 CTWTitles[25,0] = " insulators"; 

 CTWTitles[25,1] = "Insulator"; 

 

 CTWTitles[26,0] = " asbestos"; 

 CTWTitles[26,1] = "Asbestos"; 

 

 CTWTitles[27,0] = " teamster"; 
Office of Compensation Analysis and Support

Document Number: OCAS-PER-014 Program Evaluation Plan 

Effective Date: 11/28/2007 Revision No. 0 Page 7 of 7 

 CTWTitles[27,1] = "Teamster"; 

 

 CTWTitles[28,0] = " machinist"; 

 CTWTitles[28,1] = "Machinist"; 

 

 CTWTitles[29,0] = " radiographer"; 

 CTWTitles[29,1] = "Radiographer"; 

 

 CTWTitles[30,0] = " iron w"; 

 CTWTitles[30,1] = "Iron Worker";